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FIGHT FOR A PRO-PLANET, ANTI-WAR GOVERNMENT

ALL U.S. TROOPS HOME NOW

Protests Demand No War on Syria and Iraq

As soon as President Barack Obama began the illegal bombing Syria, emergency actions were organized across the country. These followed many protests earlier in the month demanding Hands Off Syria! Protests also rejected the bombing of Iraq and send-ing of troops into the country.

While initially about 2,000 troops were sent — in ad-dition to “advisors” already there — according to Iraqis the U.S. will be sending 13,000 troops to be stationed in Tikrit. Actions took place in many cities, including DC, Tampa, Durham, Philadelphia, New

YOUTH MAIN FORCE

Support Continued Resistance in Ferguson

Resistance in Ferguson to the brutal police killing of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown has continued since the August 9 shooting. Daily actions of various kinds are being organized. A major demon-

stration with people coming in from across the country is planned for October 11, with additional actions October 10-13. The unyielding protesters have maintained a memo-rial to Brown at the site of the

BROAD UNITED ACTION 400,000 STRONG IN NYC

Peoples’ Organized Efforts Are Defending the Planet and Rights

A massive demonstration rejecting the destruction of Mother Earth by the monopo-lies and standing in defense of the planet and rights took place in New York City September 21. About 400,000 people

from across the U.S and abroad participated, with more than 2600 organizations involved and youth making up the ma-jority of the action. More than 300 campuses joined in,

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Defending Planet and Rights • 3

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October edition of Voice of Revolution

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Editorials & Statements

• Peoples’ Organized Efforts Are Defending the Planet and Rights ... 1

• Support Continued Resistance in Ferguson .................................... 1

• Protests Demand No War on Syria and Iraq ................................. 1

Defending the Planet and Rights

• New York City People’s Climate March (photos) ............................ 4

• Worldwide People’s Climate Marches (photos) ............................. 7

• Youth Took the Lead ................................................................... 9

• What the People’s Climate March Did for Me ................................• What the People’s Climate March Did for Me ................................• What the People’s Climate March Did for Me 9

• Hope Makes a Comeback .............................................................• Hope Makes a Comeback .............................................................• Hope Makes a Comeback 10

• Why the People’s Climate March Is Important for Everyone ..........• Why the People’s Climate March Is Important for Everyone ..........• Why the People’s Climate March Is Important for Everyone 11

• Science Shows Up in Force .........................................................• Science Shows Up in Force .........................................................• Science Shows Up in Force 12

• Impressions from Northern California People’s Climate Rally ....... 13

• Pentagon, World’s Biggest Polluter .............................................• Pentagon, World’s Biggest Polluter .............................................• Pentagon, World’s Biggest Polluter 14

• UN Climate Summit ..................................................................• UN Climate Summit ..................................................................• UN Climate Summit 15

Support Resistance in Ferguson

• We Will Gather in Ferguson,

But the World Will Hear Our Call for Change ............................. But the World Will Hear Our Call for Change ............................. But the World Will Hear Our Call for Change 17

• We Need You in Ferguson October 10 –13 ................................... 17

• Reports From Youth Resisting in Ferguson .................................. 18

• Grand Jury for Ferguson Shooting Suspected of Misconduct .........• Grand Jury for Ferguson Shooting Suspected of Misconduct .........• Grand Jury for Ferguson Shooting Suspected of Misconduct 19

No War on Syria and Iraq

• Syria Says U.S. and Its Allies Must Stop

Financing and Training Terrorists and Work Under UN ................ Financing and Training Terrorists and Work Under UN ................ Financing and Training Terrorists and Work Under UN 20

• Fighting ISIL Is a Smokescreen for U.S. Mobilization

Against Syria and Iran .............................................................. 21

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NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

from Maine to Florida to California, including many historically black universities and colleges. A total of 550 buses from nearly all 50 states fl ooded into Manhattan as well as two dedicated trains, one from DC and one from California, which made stops to pick protesters all along the way. Sister demonstrations also occurred in more than 2,800 lo-cations in 166 countries worldwide, including Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Colombia, England, Finland, France, Germany, Turkey, Kenya, Togo, South Africa, Burundi, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Australia and others.

The NYC demonstration, under the banner People’s Climate March, directed itself to the people, march-ing through the heart of Manhattan from Central Park to Times Square and beyond. The size was such that many of those gathered on Central Park West, stretching from about 59th to 93rd Street, had to wait 2-3 hours to even start to march. As well many thousands more watched the live video stream throughout the day. Organizers placed a giant video screen at the start of the march, with all those participating fi lmed as they passed by. Another screen was placed about halfway through, so many in the march and along the route were able to watch and get a fuller sense of the scope of the action. While organized to coincide with the UN’s Climate Summit September 23, the march served to mobilize a broad scope of forces and show the fi ghting strength of the peoples, relying on their own efforts to bring change.

Large delegations of indigenous peoples participated, from throughout the Americas, alongside many African Americans and other national minorities. Delegations came from: Kern County, the most-fracked county in California with among the worst air quality in the country; the Fort Berthold reservation on the Bakken Shale of North Dakota and the site of the more than one million gallon fracking waste spill this summer; Minisink, New York, in the heart of the rich Black Dirt growing region and the site of a compressor station that is already making residents sick from toxic gas releases; and many places in between.

Workers, immigrants, farmers, teachers, scientists, religious groups and those representing various communities, such as New Yorkers still contending with the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, all took their stand to demand Climate Justice Now! Together demonstrators made clear that it is the people themselves that are the frontline of change and it is their struggles that are defending the planet and rights. A sense of social responsibility was felt, as the need to safeguard the planet and fi ght for a bright future was

prevalent. Many of the youth put forward the need for System Change, Not Climate Change.

The various delegations spoke to the inter-related issues raised by the poisoning of the planet and the natural disasters already occurring, such as the health crisis and right to healthcare and the right to housing. As one banner put it: Rising Tides, Rising Rents, Rising People! Demands to ban the dangerous drilling method of fracking were widespread, as were the calls opposing various pipelines and for use of alternative sources of energy. As one sign put it, Windmills not Weapons, while another said, We DemandClean Air, Water, Energy! Farmers and others demanded the right to food and called for food justice, including healthy food and working conditions. Anti-war organizations also had their pres-ence, making the connection between the aggressive U.S. wars and devastation to the peoples and planet. The Pentagon is the world’s single largest polluter. Ending wars contributes to peace and defending the planet. The alternative, as one sign put it is to fi ght for a Pro-Planet, Anti-War Government.fi ght for a Pro-Planet, Anti-War Government.fi ght for a

As the march stretched more than 50 blocks, a moment of silence was organized at about 1pm. The level of organization was such that bus and train greeters and the various organizations involved had informed participants that the moment of silence would occur. A text message went out and then, hundreds of thousands all together fell silent — to honor Mother Earth and all the humans and living things killed and devastated by climate change. Then, a huge wave of sound washed through the crowd, as section after section joined in shouting and hollering in unison. It showed both the unity and strength of the fi ghting forces and, like the demonstration itself, gave confi dence to all that yes, we the people can and must win!

1 • Peoples Defending the Planet and Rights

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

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NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

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WORLDWIDE PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCHES

SOUTH AFRICA

KIRIBATI

BURUNDI

KENYA

COLOMBIA BRAZIL

CANADA

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

SPAINGREECE

TURKEY

BANGLADESH NEPAL

KOREA

JAPAN

AUSTRALIA

PAPUA NEW GUINEA INDIA

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NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

Youth Took the LeadTimmons Roberts, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

The day after the People’s Climate March, and I am awash with emotion. I am exhausted, and exhilarated, from having gotten up before dawn to take a four-hour bus ride from Providence, Rhode Island to march for six hours through the streets of New York City with my 11-year-old daughter.

The streets were mobbed with 300,000 or 400,000 serious but upbeat people, making it by far the largest climate change protest in history.

The crowd was diverse, with elderly church people and minority groups on the “front lines” where climate impacts are already being felt at the front of the two- mile parade. There were peace groups and anti-nuclear groups and gobs of vegans. The whole crowd would join in cheers like: What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!”

I honestly was not sure I would ever see this day.As someone who has worked his whole life on the issue of

climate change, I feel emotional just being surrounded by a multitude with so much energy and determination to address this issue that threatens, literally, to swamp all the other issues.

Economic development, fi ghting poverty and the spread of disease, efforts to improve education and health, all are threat-ened by the disruptions in a destabilized climate system that are already being recorded by thermometers and tide gauges around the world. Scientists project heat and storms will get much worse unless we turn around our emissions right now.

The march [included the] call We Can Build the Future, and the organizers arranged the marchers in contingents with identifying statements such as “Every generation’s future is at stake, we can build a better one — Labor, Families, Students,

Elders and More.”Other groups were identifi ed with pledges “To Change Ev-

erything, We Need Everyone,” “The Debate Is Over” “We Know Who is Responsible;” and “We Have Solutions.”

We fi nally made our way to the “Future” group. It was unbe-lievably massive, more than a mile of students from universities across America, with families and union members mixed in: Virginia, Texas, California, New York, New Jersey, Maine, Mas-sachusetts. Their energy and concern were palpable.

Writer Bill McKibben has wisely said that climate change is exactly the opposite of the types of issues that universities were set up to address. Normally the old person stands in front of the room dispensing knowledge to the gathered fl ock of young people. But with climate change, this is their issue, even more than it is ours. They need to teach us. We need to listen. And we need to help them respond to save and build the future.

One parent in the family section of the march carried the David Brower quote on a sign: “We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Climate change is the most poignant issue in that respect, and all those college students made that clear. We owe them their future.

One student held a small hand-painted square of cardboard as he marched in front of us. “YOLO, Make it count.” Fortunately I had just learned from my daughter what YOLO means.

You only live once: make it count.(Timmons Roberts is Ittleson Professor of Environmental

Studies and Sociology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island)

What the People’s Climate March Did for MeSteve Buckley, Greenpeace Volunteer, New York City, September 30, 2014

[…] I know that this movement deserves nothing less than our full attention and commitment. […] What the march actually did for me is what I had hoped it would do. It united us, all of us. From workers to ministers to amateur hippies like me, we all came together for climate justice. In one of my older blogs, I wrote about fi nally having a climate movement that is not just about the environment but a movement about justice, morality and human-ity. I am overjoyed to be able to say that I saw all of those things fi nally come together. I am happy to be in the position to say we are fi nally having a discussion about addressing the major underlying problems when it comes to environmental destruction.

We are fi nally talking about how race and class are major factors in which areas bear the worst of the climate impacts and environ-mental degradation. We are talking about how people in power have decided that some lives matter less than others. We are not just talking about how injustice factors into the problem, we are trying to tackle the injustice within the paradigm of the new green

economy. We are having a discussion not only about creating a new green economy, but creating one that has fair paying working blue collar jobs and gives people the ability to live in an equitable way. We are fi nally trying to get justice for our brothers and sisters all around the world who are feeling the fi rst impacts of climate change and are not only the least able to adapt but are most often the least responsible for the changing climate.

Knowing the whole movement is moving towards justice did so much for me personally. It made me feel a range of emotions and thoughts I had not thought possible, it inspired me, it motivated me, it even shocked me a little bit, but most importantly it gave me hope. It gives me hope that 400,000 thought climate justice is important enough to march in the streets of New York for hours on end. It gives me hope that I’ll never be alone. So being I no longer feel alone fi ghting this fi ght, I can rest easy without feeling like the weight of the world is on my shoulders…I know that I have 400,000 friends to help me carry it and it feels great.

SPAIN

TURKEY

NEPAL

JAPAN

INDIA

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

Hope Makes a ComebackAppalachian Voices

As we slowly wended our way out of Manhattan, tired and feet aching, I found myself struggling to process the overwhelming feeling that pervaded every inch of the nearly 4-mile long proces-sion earlier that day. The feeling saturated every piece of artwork and humble homemade sign, resonated in each drumroll and singing voice, and illuminated the eyes of every one of the 400,000 marchers in attendance. Such was the overpowering feeling of hope at the People’s Climate March.

Approximately 100 Appala-chian State University students took part in Sunday’s march and happily found Appalachia well-represented upon arrival. We could not walk two feet without running into someone carrying a sign calling for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining…It was one among countless others, and no demographic, environmental or social issue went unrepresented. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, indigenous groups, politicians and celebrities joined together and walked in solidarity. The student section was alight with passionate youth from across the country, eager to roll up their sleeves and build a better future, as bright yellow and orange signs ebulliently bobbed up and down along the sea of marchers like rising suns.

The diversity of the marchers was a beautiful sight to behold, but perhaps more stunning was the common thread running between them. Everyone was united in their confi dence to affect change; the understanding that tackling the factors behind climate change — the environmental degradation caused by poorly regulated industries, inadequate government involvement, overconsumption and our growth-obsessed economy — holds the solution to a myriad of interconnected global issues today. It quickly became apparent at the march that climate change is as much a political, social, and cultural issue as it is an environmental one. And that efforts to ad-dress the problem could lead to a transformation as expansive as climate change itself. […]

In New York and in every sister march around the world, the air was electrifi ed with hope and faith in the future. This was perhaps no more evident than at 1 p.m., when a moment of silence erupted into an explosion of noise. Every marcher raised their voice in op-position to climate change; shouting for each other, the future, and the planet. The clamor was hair-raising, a sonic “atomic bomb” fi lled with promise and power.

After attending Sunday’s march, it is hard to shake that feeling of hope. It is disturbing how lacking it had been beforehand, but its return is beyond welcome and reassuring. In the face of such a

daunting and massive problem as climate change, it is easy to throw up your hands in exasperation and become discouraged. But after this weekend we should realize this problem is not insurmountable and, if the numbers are any indica-tion, that no one is fi ghting it alone. (from Maggie Cozens, September 27, 2014)

We Made History! Last weekend, Appalachian Voices joined 400,000 people in New York City for the largest climate march in history. And it was truly inspiring.

While massive extractive fos-sil fuel interests try everything in their power to tighten their grip on

our region’s energy future, it is moments like these that show we are making progress. People from across the country came to the march, including many dear friends from Central Appalachia who are directly impacted by the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining and our country’s reliance on coal.

We laughed, we cried, we danced and chanted, but most impor-tantly we sent a signal loud and clear to world leaders gathering for UN climate negotiations that action must be taken immediately to avert further impacts of climate change.

The march was more than four miles long and included an enormous variety of people and issues. One contingent of activists supported the clean, renewable power sources that will help address the climate crisis. In the midst of the robust Virginia contingent, dozens of wooden model wind turbines twirled in the breeze. In the middle of the march was a youth contingent which included K-12 students and their families and stretched more than four blocks. The visuals were stunning, the energy was electrifying, and for once, the weather was perfect for a climate march!

Leading the march were communities in the frontlines of the climate crisis. From Black Mesa, to the Gulf, inner city Chicago to the hollers of Appalachia, impacted communities have been standing together as part of the Climate Justice Alliance. It was an honor to stand with Appalachian leaders and support the courageous efforts of the frontline communities that were marching.

The People’s Climate March demonstrated that communities are standing together and the immense power of those committed to fi ghting. Perhaps most importantly, it reminded each of us that we are in this together.

As we continue to fi ght state-by-state and town-by-town in our region for solutions and strong measures to reduce pollution, this march fi lled us with inspiration and resolve. (from Kate Rooth, September 25, 2014)

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NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

Why the People’s Climate March Is Important for Everyone

James Haslam, ExecutiveDirector, Vermont Workers’ Center, September 18 2014I am a parent of two little kids, but you do not have to be a parent in order to care deeply about the kind of world we are leaving to the next generation. In the three years since Irene, with headlines dominated by droughts, super-storms, and mounting resource confl icts, more and more of us are confronting the possibility that our children may be inheriting a world far different from the one we’ve grown up in.

That’s why on Sept. 21, I will be joining almost a thousand people from across Vermont who are packing into buses and heading to New York City (NYC) for the People’s Climate March. Taking place just days before a major United Nations climate summit, the People’s Climate March promises to be the largest demonstration yet in the growing movement for climate justice, turning out hundreds of thousands into the streets.

I’ve never really considered myself an environmentalist, and have spent most of my career working with people fi ghting for workers’ rights, economic justice, and universal health care. But in today’s world, it’s no longer possible to separate struggles for eco-nomic and social rights from the fi ght for a livable planet. […]

More and more of us are coming to the conclusion that the only real “solution” to climate change involves building a new economy and true democracy grounded in human rights and ecological stewardship. In this world, communities and workers would be in charge of investment priorities, and jobs would be based on standards set to ensure everyone’s right to live and work with dignity. I’m talking about a world where people are able to stay home when he or a loved one is sick, and where our com-munities’ needs are met through recognizing our human rights to

health care, education, housing, healthy food and healthy environ-ment. All of these are interconnected and systems to provide them should be estab-lished as public goods for us all. The solution to climate change is a system change, one that is about justice, participation, and real democracy.

Even more impor-tant than marching in the streets of NYC is what we do when we

all get back. With the stakes so high, its clear we do not have time to spare.

The only way that any of this will happen is through organizing and building a people’s movement powerful enough to change the course of history and point us in the right direction. This must be a movement for everybody, which means we need to be dismantling the systems of oppression that keep people divided. In this way, I believe the fi ght against racism and police brutal-ity in Ferguson, as well as the growing movements for migrant justice across the country are directly tied to our ability to turn things around for our planet.

Here in Vermont, we have a special responsibility because we can go on the offensive in a way that can help blaze the trail. As a result of the Healthcare Is A Human Right Campaign, we are already leading the way for other states in this country to have universal health care. Based on this success, the Vermont Work-ers’ Center joined together to form a Vermont Human Rights Council with progressive labor unions; climate justice groups like Rising Tide, 350-Vermont, and the Sierra Club; disability rights groups like the Vermont Center for Independent Living; immigrant rights groups like Migrant Justice, and many more. In addition to working together in solidarity, we are creating a vision of how we reinvent decision-making through our People’s Budget Campaign, which is based on the premise that our budget priorities must be rooted in meeting the needs of our communi-ties, rather than forcing us to compete with one another for scarce public resources.

On September 21, this vision of solidarity will be on display as we march together for climate justice and human rights. There are already at least 18 buses full of people coming from Vermont (and you should join us!). But even more important than marching in the streets of NYC is what we do when we all get back. With the stakes so high, its clear we don’t have time to spare. We must do everything we can to join with peers around the country and the world in being a catalyst to win transformative changes and build one movement for people and the planet.

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

Science Shows Up in ForceDavid Biello, Scientifi c American, September 20, 2014

The People’s Climate March may end up being the biggest protest to urge action to restrain global warming yet. The march in New York City on September 21 is pre-dicted to draw more than 100,000 people, which would top the tens of thousands who showed up in Copenhagen back in 2009. But how many scientists, whether they study climate change or not, will be there?

The idea of the march — fi rst proposed by writer and activist Bill McKibben of 350.org — is intended to remind world leaders gathering in New York City for a United Nations climate summit that people around the world demand action to halt global warming. And action to combat climate change is what many scientists have been calling for since at least the 1970s, in a series of scientifi c publications and reports, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change series. “Writing more such articles is not going to change minds,” says geologist James Powell of the University of Southern California, who is attending the march and helping to organize scientifi c involvement. “We need to do something more dramatic.” Like many older scientists, Powell says he is doing it for his grandchildren. “I imagine my grandchildren and their chil-dren decades in the future asking: ‘What did grandpa do?’ I want to have an answer.”

Powell, who was president of both Franklin and Marshall Col-lege and Reed College during the apartheid divestment movement, believes that it will take political muscle to force politicians to act. So he partnered with former professional biologist Lucky Tran to help organize Science Stands, which helped attract scientists from across the country and organizations such as the New York Academy of Sciences, which urged member via email to gather at the American Museum of Natural History to participate in the march. […]

As the world’s most famous physicist Albert Einstein is once reputed to have said: “those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act,” a sentiment echoed by conservation biologist Jes-sica Hellman of the University of Notre Dame, who notes that it is also now time to adapt to the climate change already detected and underway. […]

Many branches of science are likely to be represented at the march: climate scientists of course, but also geologists, meteorolo-gists, materials scientists and even engineers. “I’m marching because last Christmas, my hometown of Winchester—the ancient capital of England—saw its worst fl ooding in at least a quarter of a millen-nium,” says Geoffrey Supran, a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology and one of 70 MIT students and faculty attending the march. “We have the technologies to begin to tackle the climate crisis. What we lack is the politi-cal will to make it happen.”

In the lab, Supran has worked on trying to make more effi cient photovoltaic cells to convert sunshine to electricity and bet-ter light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to cut down on the amount of electricity needed to produce lighting. Such technologies can help reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmo-sphere. That effort may include using more solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower and/or nuclear power, as well as placing a price on the CO2 pollution from burning fossil fuels. Many economists believe such a switch to renewable sources of energy can contribute to a stronger economy and better human lives rather than slow such growth. And

the infrastructure decisions made in the next 15 years or so will determine levels of greenhouse gas pollution for the remainder of the century. At the same time, technologies to pull CO2 back out of the atmosphere may prove vital since atmospheric concentrations are nearing 400 parts-per-million—and rising.

Scientists have not traditionally expressed policy preferences, preferring to maintain a stance of impartiality. Such dispassion, neutrality and objectivity will remain fundamental to the scientifi c method. At the same time, says Powell, “we have detected a threat, the greatest threat ever detected in human history.” Sea level rise alone could force mass migration inland here in the U.S. in coming centuries, he says. “At this point we need to abandon our reticence and speak out forcefully, and just speaking may not be enough.”

That is because the threat is large. As a geologist, Powell notes that by burning fossil fuels humans have sped up geologic processes like climate change more than 1000-fold. Whereas the Earth cooled or warmed over centuries or millennia in the past, it is now warming over the course of decades and even years. A new record for total CO2 pollution was set in 2013 — including the fastest rate of CO2 pollution growth — and is likely to be broken again this year.

Or, as paleoclimatologist Peter deMenocal of Columbia Uni-versity puts it: the “modern climate is exceptionally warm relative to the last millennium, and future decades will be another world, unlike anything modern civilization has ever seen. This is a really sobering fact.”

So he will be joining the march along with Columbia colleagues and his twin 8-year-old girls. “It is important they witness that a lot of people care about this issue and are willing to do something about it,” he says. “This is about their future.”

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NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

Impressions from Northern California People’s Climate Rally

Lake Merritt Amphitheater, Oakland, California, September 21, 2014Yes, there was the big climate march in New York, the one that everyone has been talking about, except the mainstream media. It was a fantastic success, with 400,000 people fl ock-ing to a place that is both the pulsing heart of the world’s most wasteful nation as well as the nerve center of the world’s governing body, to shout it from the rooftops that a critical mass of earthlings are tired of seeing their home planet trashed right in front of their eyes.

But a good movement is like a human body or any other living organism: it cannot function with just a heart or a brain. If it is going to survive and thrive, there need to be a lot of other functioning organs or parts that can provide the kind of immunity and resilience required to make it long-term through a diverse and complex ecosystem.

So to me, going to a rally 3000 miles west of the main march was like putting my fi nger on the movement’s wrist and check-ing its pulse. Should there be signs of vitality in such remote regions of this body, I knew that this uprising was meant for the long run.

I knew right away that this would be a good day when — walking in along the lake’s shore with my sweetie and an old friend — my buddy Bill from 350 Bay Area came paddling up beside us, giving us his personal assessment of the rally’s health. [Note that photos accompany this blog, providing visuals for the content. To see that go www.dailykos.com.]

Meandering along the lake, we encountered beautiful hand-made banners and their designers. Getting these kinds of creative, sensitive, and intelligent statements was a clear sign that this organism was getting plenty of good oxygen.

As we walked towards the stage, we were greeted by all kinds of diverse groups of happy people. You always know that your rally’s blood pressure is in great shape when you see lots of smiling Buddhists.

Moving deeper into the crowd though, we spotted a distur-bance [a sign saying Climate Change is a Lie]. Every function-ing organism needs germs to help build up its immune system. Before we knew what was happening, our collective organism had built up the perfect antibodies to deal with this virus, in the form of these two gentlemen from National Nurses United who attached themselves to the denier bug for the duration of the

rally, [with their sign saying Our Planet, Our Health.]

We worked our way to the side of the stage, where Andrés Soto of Com-munities for a Better Environment was MC’ing the event. If Andrés, who has been one of the leading voices in the fight for climate justice and against the greedy polluters of Chevron, had decided to stay in California for the oc-casion, it meant that this was going to be a living breathing support system.

Not just living and breathing, but also pedaling, as the power for the stage was provided by the lungs of this organ-ism, Rock the Bike. As soon as a bike became available, my buddy Johnny got to pedaling, unsolicited, to keep the peoples’ mics from going silent. A functioning support system run by an interdependent web of participating denizens.

We walked around the back to get a view of the whole organ-ism. Great to see so many fresh cells [young people].

It was a truly self-aware organism, calling playful attention to how unwholesome the entire foundation upon which modern life has been built really is. [sign reading: “If you think the Economy is more important than the Environment, try holding your breath while counting your $$$”]

It was an organism keeping its arteries unclogged and healthy and its creative veins stimulated...

In short, it was a well balanced weav-ing together of strands and connecting of dots. Small and local enough to be resilient and sup-portive of the whole, but large enough to make an impact and stand on its own.

And that is impor-tant, because in the end, each other and our connection to this planetary organism we inhabit is all we have got.

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DEFENDING THE PLANET AND RIGHTS

Pentagon, World’s Biggest PolluterThe U.S. military is the largest polluter in the world, responsible for the most widespread and destructive pollution of the planet. By far the greatest single assault on the environ-ment and all peoples around the globe comes from the Pentagon. It is the largest institu-tional user of petroleum products and energy in general. It accounts for a full 80 per cent of the federal government’s energy demand. It produces more hazardous waste than the fi ve largest U.S. chemical companies combined. It yearly dumps more than 750,000 tons of deadly pesticides, defoliants like Agent Or-ange, solvents, petroleum, lead, mercury, and depleted uranium, along with vast amounts of radiation from weaponry produced, tested, and used. These are just some of the Pentagon’s criminal contamination of the human and natural environment. But it is exempt from both international and national greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental standards, and from providing the public information about its criminal pollution.

The government has systematically organized to keep the Pentagon exempt from any restrictions, including those of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and related laws and from climate accords like the Kyoto Accord. For Kyoto, then President Bush demanded an exemption from the restrictions in the accord, got them, and then refused to sign.

Pentagon pollution will continue to be exempt based on an executive order signed by President Barack Obama. It calls for other federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The exemptions mean the Pentagon has uninhibited use of fossil fuels, is free to release massive amounts of greenhouse gases, and goes unpunished for extensive releases of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil.

The extensive global operations of the U.S. military (includ-ing full-scale aggressive wars, limited air strikes -- themselves a major source of pollution and the Pentagon’s demand for oil -- and other secret operations on more than 1,000 bases around the world and 6,000 facilities in the United States) are not counted against U.S. greenhouse gas limits. While offi cial accounts put U.S. military usage at hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day, that does not include fuel consumed by contractors, in leased or private facilities, or in the production of weapons. The Iraq war alone emitted more greenhouse gases than 60 per cent of all other countries’ emissions.

Several key examples of Pentagon attacks on the human and natural environment are:

• Depleted uranium. Tens of thousands of pounds of micro-par-ticles of radioactive and highly toxic waste contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Balkans as a result of U.S. aggression and use of these weapons.

• U.S.-made land mines and cluster bombs, spread over wide areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, continue to spread death and destruction even after wars have ceased.

• Thirty-fi ve years after the Vietnam War, dioxin contamination is 300 to 400 times higher than “safe” levels, resulting in severe birth defects and cancers into the third generation of those affected.

• Rusting barrels of chemicals and solvents and millions of rounds of ammunition are criminally abandoned by the Pentagon in bases around the world.

• U.S. wars in Iraq have created severe desertifi cation (degradation and severe drying) of 90 per cent of the land, changing Iraq from a food exporter into a country that imports 80 per cent of its food.

• In the U.S., military bases top the Su-perfund list of the most polluted places, as perchlorate and trichloroethylene seep into the

drinking water, aquifers, and soil.• Nuclear weapons testing in the American Southwest and the

South Pacifi c Islands has contaminated millions of acres of land and water with radiation, while uranium tailings defi le Navajo reservations. In addition, between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. dropped more than 60 nuclear weapons on the people of the Marshall Is-lands, contaminating them. The Chamoru people of Guam, being so close and downwind, also still experience an alarmingly high rate of related cancers.

The Navy also recently updated a 2009 fi ve-year strategic plan to control the Arctic for North American monopolies, led by the U.S. It outlines the militarization of the Arctic in the name of national security, securing potential undersea riches, and other maritime interests. It anticipates the frozen Arctic Ocean to be open waters by the year 2030. This warming of the Arctic is connected with climate change yet far from addressing this issue, the U.S. is instead organizing to militarily dominate the Arctic.

The Navy plan strategizes on expanding fl eet operations, re-source development, research and reshaping global transportation. It includes “assessing current and required capability to execute undersea warfare, expeditionary warfare, strike warfare, strategic sealift, and regional security cooperation.” As part of implementing the plan the U.S. stationed thirty-six F-22 Raptor stealth fi ghter jets, which is 20 per cent of the F-22 fl eet, in Anchorage, Alaska.

As people demonstrate in New York City and worldwide de-manding that the U.S. take responsibility for stopping its massive greenhouse gas emissions and attacks on the environment, many are making U.S. crimes of wars, massive Pentagon pollution and militarization of the planet a major target of resistance. Opposing U.S. wars and Pentagon pollution is integrally linked to defending the human and natural environment.

15

NYC PEOPLE’S CLIMATE MARCH

UN Climate SummitThe UN Climate Summit took place Septem-ber 23 at UN Headquarters in New York. The Summit was not part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations, and no negotiations related to the Convention took place at the Summit. “Its goal is to raise political will and mobilize ac-tion, thereby generating momentum toward a successful outcome of the negotiations,” said the Summit website. “The Secretary-General has asked world leaders to come to the Sum-mit to announce bold actions that they will be taking in their countries. There will also be announcements from a number of coalition initiatives that have high potential to catalyze ambitious action on the ground. These coalitions, consisting of participants from Governments, the private sector and civil society, will address several high-impact areas, such as climate fi nance; energy effi -ciency; renewable energy; adaptation; disaster risk reduction and resilience; forests; agriculture; transportation; short-lived climate pollutants; and cities,” the announcement said.

In attendance at the UN Summit itself were more than 120 heads of state, as well as representatives of non-governmental organizations and private businesses. Included amongst the latter were monopolies that are among the worst polluters in the world. They used the occasion to “greenwash” their destruction of the social and natural environment.

U.S. President Barack Obama used his speech to the Summit to claim the U.S. is a global leader in environmental protection, despite all evidence to the contrary, saying that other countries should follow its example.

“The United States has made ambitious investments in clean energy and ambitious reductions in our carbon emissions,” Obama said. “Today I call on all countries to join us, not next year or the year after that, but right now. Because no nation can meet this global threat alone.” What goes unsaid is Obama considers the dangerous drilling method of fracking for natural gas part of these “clean energy” investments. In fact, the fracking has an even higher carbon footprint than C02.

The claims made by the U.S. are also contradicted by the expe-rience at the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. COP 19 was held in Warsaw, Poland, from November 11 to 22, 2013. The Conference document made clear that there is a sharp divide between rich and poor countries on the question of climate change. In particular, there was a mass walkout of the G77+China bloc, a total of 133 countries, because of the intransigence of the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Australia and other developed countries. In this context, Obama’s remarks in New York were a reminder to all that they should submit to the dictate of the U.S. and other developed countries. Moreover, U.S. tabulations do not take into account the enormous amount of pollution and destruction caused by its many military operations worldwide, which show that the

Pentagon alone is the world’s biggest polluter (see article p.14 ).

Philippines-based non-governmental organization IBON reports:

“Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, speak-ing on behalf of G77 and China —the largest bloc comprising 133 developing countries — said that the international response to cli-mate change must fully respect the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR). CBDR means that while all states/countries have the common responsibility to protect the global environ-ment, they have contributed differently to

ecological problems, so their responsibility to reduce or control the effects and prevent future occurrences will be different according to their means and capabilities.

“Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro delivered a stark cri-tique of the capitalist model, saying that it has for decades ignored nature’s capacity to restore itself. He expressed concern over the so-called Green Economy model that is being promoted as a capi-talist solution, and asked if anyone still believed that multinational corporations could change overnight to become the saviors of the planet. He reiterated the call from the Margarita Declaration of the Social Pre-COP that Venezuela hosted in July, i.e., cambio el sistema, no el clima (system change, not climate change).

“The Climate Summit does not have a bearing on the offi cial climate negotiations, the next round of which is set to take place at the forthcoming annual Conference of Parties in Lima, Peru (COP 20) in December this year. But the Summit is explicitly aimed at ‘putting climate change back at the top of the political agenda’ after the lackluster COPs of previous years. [...]

“The question remains, however, in the minds of civil society, governments and other climate justice advocates across the globe: Will the momentum be sustained and provide enough power to break the deadlock in the cli-mate talks, which has stalled climate action in previous years?

“Hoping for a break-through, all stakehold-ers are gearing up for Peru COP 20 just two months from now. But the world, especially poor, developing, and small-island countries, cannot wait much lon-ger for continued cli-mate deadlock and in-action.”

16

DEMONSTRATE OCTOBER 11

shooting. They also organized to rebuild it, with pictures, candles and poems, after recent efforts to burn it down. Tent encampments of youth were also established. For weeks, one of the youth collectives that has formed, Lost Voices, had an encampment on West Florissant Avenue, blocks away from where Brown was killed. The youth, many who knew Brown, gathered to discuss tactics to continue their fi ght and also to inform themselves about their rights. A second encampment also existed near the police station, a main target of current demonstrations.

Youth and the many adults supporting them have also continued to contend with police brutality and hundreds of arrests, using various tactics as needed. When told they could not block foot traffi c on the sidewalk, they used bicycles in the streets. When police tried to enforce a fi ve-second rule, where anyone stopping for more than fi ve seconds would be arrested, protesters locked arms to prevent arrests and continued their action. They also took the police department to court arguing the rule was meant to block their right to protest.

In response to police claims that protests should end so things can “get back to normal,” youth responded, “how we were living before wasn’t normal!” They affi rmed their right to resist police brutality and killings and racism of the government, which they regularly confronted. In the course of battle they are learning more about their rights and organizing to affi rm them.

Both tent encampments were recently raided by police, without provocation. Police confi scated all the private property of the youth. At the Lost Voices encampment, for example, on September 26, ten patrol cars and 3 fl atbed trucks were used to surrounded the encampment and forcibly remove belongings. These included 13 air mattresses, 10 tents and fi ve coolers. Two people were arrested, including a young woman organizer, for demanding their rights. She demanded to be given time to secure the belongings and was met with a chokehold and then arrested. Police took these actions in a short time, perhaps in an effort to intimidate protesters who are organizing now for the October events. Youth are organizing to re-establish their encampments at a different location.

In other battles, police insisted that demonstrators disperse after 11pm, using a noise ordinance as their excuse. Protesters have refused. One night about 200 people banged pots and pans for much of the evening.

The night after police raided the encampment, protesters again gathered in the street in front of the police station. They were joined by a group of clergy members. The youth chanted, “I put my hands

on my head, don’t shoot me dead!” Through such chants and raising their hands during protests, demonstrators have shown their respect for Brown as well as their defi ance of police — that even with threats of being shot with hands in the air, they will not yield.

Shortly after 11pm, police told the demonstrators to leave or risk arrest. Police began to line up in military fashion, holding shields and batons at the ready. The clergy members kneeled to pray. Two rows of young people formed. They asked the clergy to stand behind so if there were to be arrests, the youth would be the ones. As police came forward the youth were unfazed, saying they had the right to protest. They locked arms and said, “Take one, take all!” Standing fi rm, as they have repeatedly done, their protest continued. In this case the police retreated.

The struggle in Ferguson continues to reveal the unjust, racist character of the U.S. state from top to bottom, as well as the path forward — fi ghting for rights. The defi ance of those in Ferguson has been an inspiration to all. The many resisting have demonstrated that by taking matters in our own hands and defending rights, we can deprive the rich and their police of their power to deprive us of rights. It is police and government impunity that is the crime, resistance the solution. Ferguson has been on unyielding on this issue and on their demand for justice. Voice of Revolution urges people to join the action October 11 and lend support through other means, such as holding local rallies October 11 and promoting this struggle for Justice Now!

1 • Support Resistance in Ferguson

Visit our website: usmlo.orgusmlo.orgusmlo.orgusmlo.orgusmlo.org

17

DEMONSTRATE OCTOBER 10-13

We Will Gather in Ferguson, But the World Will Hear Our Call for Change

FergusonOctober.com

Droves of people, many of them young and black, took to the streets of Ferguson, Missouri to demand justice for Mike Brown. Millions stood in solidarity as protestors were met by a brutal and militarized response by local police departments.

Our country can no longer deny the epidemic of police violence facing Black and Brown communities. Mike Brown is now part of a long list of people like John Crawford, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant and countless others who have been unjustly killed by police. Their lives mattered.

Join Hands Up United, Organization for Black Struggle, Mis-sourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment and our partners in Ferguson from October 10-13 for a weekend of resistance. We are hosting a series of public events — marches, convenings and panels — to build momentum for a nationwide movement against police violence.

Justice Now March October 103:00 pm - 5:00 pmBuzz Westfall Justice Center100 S Central Ave., Clayton, MissouriTo kick off our Weekend of Resistance, we will march on Pros-ecuting Attorney’s Bob McCulloch’s offi ce to demand Justice for Mike Brown. In order to get justice, McCulloch needs to step aside.

Justice for All: National March and Rally October 1110:00 am - 2:00 pm Scott Trade Center

1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, Missouri

Thousands of people from Ferguson, St. Louis and the nation will come together and show our strength as we stand united against police violence, both here in Ferguson and across the country. We will march through downtown St. Louis and rally at Keiner Plaza sending a message across the world: Not One More!

Hip Hop & Hope, October 12 TBA, St. Louis areaWe will be hosting events at houses of worship throughout the St. Louis area to commemorate the lives of those we’ve lost to police violence. Additionally, we’ll be hosting a music event during the afternoon in the Ferguson area.

Moral Monday Civil Disobedience October 1310:00 am - 12:00 pm TBA, Ferguson and St. Louis

Power concedes nothing without a demand. On Monday, we are taking our cue from the fearless activists in North Carolina who were inspired to fi ght back against right-wing attacks there and across the South. They kicked off the Moral Mondays move-ment for progressive change by engaging in civil disobedience every week, reminding all of us that these actions have been a part of every major movement for change. We will be hosting a series of actions throughout the Ferguson and St. Louis area.

We Need You in Ferguson October 10 –13Tef Poe and Tory Russell, Hands Up United

Just this week (September the Ferguson Police Department raided an encampment maintained by Ferguson youth, who like all of us, are outraged by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. In a matter of minutes—and without warning—police and town offi cials tore down this important gathering place in the community. Two young women were arrested.

Young brothers and sisters in Ferguson remain under siege. Too many community spaces have been raided and peaceful protests have been met with vicious police brutality and violence. We need your help to reclaim the city. Join us in Ferguson, Mo. for a weekend of resistance Oct. 10–Oct. 13.

As young, black men, we’ve known what it’s like to be a

target of suspicion much of our lives. That’s why we’re coming together for #FergusonOctober to reverse the senseless, rarely prosecuted police violence that has plagued black and brown communities for generations. As we continue to put pressure on offi cials in Ferguson, St. Louis and around the country, we know we are not alone.

It was young people who fi rst bravely took to the streets fol-lowing Michael Brown’s murder demanding real change and justice. We must continue to stand. We are in the fi ght of our lives. We come together to demand, “Not one more!”

Will you take a stand October 10 – 13? Commit to join us in Ferguson, Missouri. Let’s do this.

SUPPORT RESISTANCE IN FERGUSON

18

DEMONSTRATE OCTOBER 11

Reports From Youth Resisting in Ferguson“In Saint Louis County, the police have a history of racial profi ling and abusing the power of the shield. In Saint Louis County all of the cards are stacked against young black people. Mike Brown’s untimely demise was the tipping point in Saint Louis County. We believe he was brutally assassinated. His body lay in the streets of the Canfi eld Green Apartment Com-plex for over four hours. It was as if he was publicly lynched by the Ferguson Police Department and his body was left on display as a mechanism of fear.

“The community responded to this wrongdoing with much disdain and the police launched a preemptive and massively militarized offensive. We were tear gassed and shot down in the streets by rubber and wooden bullets as if we were dogs. I woke up one morning and there were armored military ve-hicles stationed around the corner from my mother’s house. I saw helicopters and fi ghter jets fl ying above my childhood elementary school. Palestinians tweeted advice on how to construct makeshift gas masks in St. Louis. A vast majority of the police offi cers who fi red upon us do not even live in or near the neighborhoods they are policing.

“There’s a saying on the streets: ‘Mike Brown means we’ve got to fi ght back.’ Darren Wilson shot down Mike Brown and the Ferguson Police Department attempted to vilify the victim. Young people in the city of Saint Louis viewed these repre-hensible acts as a declaration of war. There was no meeting of the minds. Mike Brown sparked a universal moment of clarity for young black people. We feel as if no one in a position of power respects us. We feel as if we are not viewed as humans. Police offi cers blatantly referred to us as monkeys and dogs. A select few have lost their jobs as result of their actions, but a great many remain gainfully employed.

“We suddenly found ourselves on the parking lot of Mc-Donald’s surrounded by members of the National Guard with M-16’s trained on our every movement. Our behavior was completely legal and peaceful… At this moment I realized it was basically all of us together versus the tyrannical order of the police and the National Guard.

‘This is the moment I asked myself, “Why did I vote for Barack Obama twice? Why are we being treated like this sim-ply for demanding justice for our fallen brother?” I decided it is possible I’ll never vote for another American president for as long as I live. We live in America but we are clearly not included as Americans. Americans don’t unleash a completely militarized force upon other Americans. Americans don’t tear gas other Americans. Americans don’t drive tanks over the front yards of other Americans. By classical defi nition we are still poor black people who reside in America, but we are not considered equal to fellow American citizens and lawmakers. Our hopes and dreams are not valued or respected. Our worries and concerns often fall upon deaf ears.

‘During this time I’ve pulled children out of clouds of tear gas. I’ve witnessed white women who are members of the cler-gy collectively praying in front of tanks and armored vehicles.

One of these women was mercilessly shot with a rubber bullet by the police while praying for peace. Our neighborhood was occupied by the police as if they were an invading army lay-ing siege to their enemy and pillaging the remains. Our basic civil rights were stripped away as we were treated like cattle in the name of a sick, sadistic experiment in martial law. We assumed that our beloved, black president would come to our defense and speak about the perils of police brutality, racial profi ling, and Mike Brown’s unfortunate demise. Instead we felt as if he co-signed this unfair treatment and endorsed the brutal show of force the police displayed towards us…

“The entire system is corrupt from top to bottom. We will not stop fi ghting and resisting all forms of police brutality. We may be the minority in this country, but vocally, we will be the majority. They cannot kill us all. They cannot throw us all in jail. We want justice for Michael Brown and every victim of police brutality. (Kareem Jackson, activist and rap-per Tef Poe)

People Are Going to Continue Fighting“These weeks of rebellion were defi ned by something that the media won’t explain to you. They won’t tell you that local youth have outsmarted the local Ferguson police department a number of times over the course of these protests…

“What they won’t tell you is that St. Louis County police offi cers used live ammunition against unarmed American citizens in the streets of Ferguson and that 911 would respond to your phone calls with “Will respond later.”

“You probably don’t know that on the nights when the mid-night curfew was enforced hours earlier, local police depart-ments committed drive-bys using rubber bullets to bruise the bodies of teen boys who weren’t afraid of tanks and armored vehicles roaming West Florissant Avenue.

“With my own eyes, I witnessed Bloods and Crips coming together to protect women and children who were too tired to run anymore from tear gas, as these U.S. citizens were merely trying to leave the chaotic scene sanctioned by the National Guard. On days where people just wanted to peacefully as-semble and stand still, we were forced by sniper rifl es and offi cers equipped with full war time gear to keep marching or be subject to arrest for the dubious charge of ‘failure to disperse.’

“So what are the next steps? People, we are going to con-tinue fi ghting. Young people like myself have come together under the banner of ‘Hands Up United’ and we are working with national organizations like the Dream Defenders to make this movement a national one. We are calling for a period of national mobilization here in Ferguson from October 9th thru October 13th. We must keep the energy going, for this is our best opportunity to receive the freedom and justice for all we always hoped for.” (Taurean Russell, Hands Up United)

Police Terrorism is the Real Violence

19

SUPPORT RESISTANCE IN FERGUSON“How dare folks criticize resistance when our young folks are responding to police terrorism? Police terrorism is the real violence! Those young men and women out there are an inspiration to the world. They are realizing that tear gas will not kill them. They have dealt with pain and street violence before so they are not scared. A young man we spoke to said, “How am I supposed to respect a curfew if they don’t respect human life?” Another young woman said: “I’ve been stabbed 15 times and shot twice! My uncle just jumped off a bridge and committed suicide. You think I’m scared?” From solidar-ity messages from rebels in Palestine and Greece, they have learned how to deal with tear gas and fi ght back effectively.

The monopoly on violence that the system holds has been go-ing on for too long and they have learned how to effectively deal with it…

“These are young Black men and women who have lived and survived street gang battles. Many may have been shot at before, so they are fearless in the face of these heavily armored trucks. They have waged combat for 14 [now almost 50] straight days, and though they have been heavily outgunned and out-manned they still keep coming back. This is a resilient population that will not stop until they see Justice for Mike Brown and at this point for their whole community.” (Rapper Rod Starz Of Rebel Diaz)

RESIDENTS DEMAND PROSECUTOR RESIGN

Grand Jury for Ferguson Shooting Suspected of Misconduct

One of the people on the Grand Jury currently hearing evidence for the Ferguson police killing of Michael Brown appears to be discussing the case with people outside the pro-ceedings. This is not permitted, is misconduct and grounds for a new Grand Jury to be impaneled. St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch is said to be “looking into” the misconduct.

Brown — unarmed and with his hands in the air — was shot by offi cer Darren Wilson August 9. He was an African American teenager, headed to college, who stayed to deal with the police while enabling has friend to get to cover. The community, outraged by this brutal killing, responded with daily demonstrations that are still on going in various forms, including an upcoming October 11 demonstration in St. Louis (see p.17).

According to twitter messages sent to the St. Louis County prosecutor’s offi ce by several users, one of the jurors told a friend that they do not think there is enough evidence to charge Wilson. That person then tweeted the information to others. The person who is friends with the juror is known to be a supporter of Wilson. So far, McCulloch has not acted to dismiss the current Grand Jury.

The Grand Jury has been hearing the case since August 20 and was expected to render a decision in October or November at the latest. Instead, it has now been delayed until January 7, 2015, even though Prosecutor McCulloch claims their inves-tigation and that of the FBI are “pretty much done.”

The Grand Jury proceedings are secret, so it is not possible to know what evidence McCulloch is presenting and what is being left out. He decides what witnesses to call and what evidence to present. Given what is already known publicly, including eye witness reports saying Brown had his hands up, ballistics and autopsy reports, there is more than enough for probable cause — all that is needed for an indictment. The fact that this is in doubt has only further affi rmed for people in Ferguson that the prosecutor is not doing his job, is instead

defending the police, and should be removed from the case.The Grand Jury impaneled for this case has only one African

American out of 12, even though Ferguson is more than 60 percent black. McCulloch also made the unusual move of not asking for an indictment on specifi c charges but rather leav-ing this entirely up to the Grand Jury. As well, McCulloch has multiple previous cases involving police offi cers involved in killings where he failed to get indictments despite evidence to the contrary. A clear example is a case in 2000 where two unarmed black men were killed. Offi cers claimed the two had resisted arrest, shot at them, and were attempting to run them over by car. The claim was made despite the men being unarmed and the vehicle being immobile. When questioned about the failure to get indictments, McCulloch dismissed the criticism. When asked about the victims, Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley, he said famously, “These guys were bums.”

Long standing experience with government prosecutors has shown they routinely defend the police and ensure they are not charged with the crimes they commit. Many police kill-ings are not even investigated by prosecutors but instead left to the police to decide if there was “justifi able use of force.” Police, policing themselves, routinely claim this is the case, even when there is a gang of police using a hail of bullets, or tasers, or chokeholds to kill unarmed African American men. And just as McCulloch has cases where police were not charged for killing people, including those unarmed, the same holds true across the country. Police killings and impunity for them by government at all levels occurs repeatedly, as recent cases in California and New York show.

The racist U.S. state is to blame for this situation and remains a target of protests. People in Ferguson and else-where have no confi dence in the government, including the FBI to secure justice. Instead they are persisting in their fi ght through actions of various kinds and refusing to concede. Their demand is for justice now and as many have said, No Justice, No Peace!

20

FIGHT FOR A PRO-PLANET, ANTI-WAR GOVERNMENT

York City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Everywhere the demand is No War on Iraq and Syria! U.S. Out of the Middle East!

In the U.S. and worldwide people are rejecting the U.S. plans for perpetual war and the destruction and chaos that comes with it. U.S. military intervention has solved no problem and instead is responsible for killing millions, mostly civilians, creating hundreds of thousands of refugees and destroying civilian infrastructure — all crimes. The stand of the large majority here and abroad is anti-war and for the peaceful political resolution of confl icts. This requires All U.S. Troops Home Now!

In taking action Obama said the aim was to “degrade and destroy” ISIS in Iraq and Syria (also known as the Islamic State, IS, or ISIL). He has admitted that ISIL is not an immediate threat, with no plans to attack the U.S. Syria is also not a threat to the U.S. and has not attacked it, requirements of international law for the U.S. to engage militarily. These facts make the U.S. actions aggression and illegal under international law and unjust in the eyes of the peoples worldwide.

Further, the ISIL is a creation of the U.S., funded and armed by U.S. allies, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar. There are indications that its forces were trained by the CIA and/or Israel’s Mossad, just as al-Qaeda before them. The U.S. and Israel are not the targets of these forces. The excuse for the bombings and troops are false, efforts to justify what cannot be justifi ed — U.S. aggression against the peoples.

The air strikes against Iraq and Syria are not for purposes of

degrading ISIL — as facts on the ground are already showing. The aim in establishing ISIL, and now bombing Iraq and Syria is to overthrow the regime of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, something they have been striving, and failing to do, for years just. U.S. imposed regime change in Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011 has not brought peace or security to these countries or the region. On the contrary, it has further unleashed anarchy, chaos, destruction and confl ict, including in Africa.

Another indicator that the U.S. wants regime change, not an end to ISIL, is the government’s rejection of Syrian government offers to cooperate with the United States in a joint military struggle against ISIS. To date the Syrian government has been the most effective military force against ISIS. So the U.S. rejection of cooperation would seem to confi rm the accusation from many quarters that the real objective of the U.S. is to establish perma-nent military bases in Syria as well as Iraq so as to acquire their resources, protect Zionist Israel and better target Iran.

October 7 marks the 13th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan that was also launched under bogus pretext of the “war on terror.” Thirteen years after 9/11, thirteen years of war against Afghanistan, eleven against Iraq, wars against Libya, Syria and massive U.S. backed bombing of Palestine by Israel, has brought only violence and horrendous U.S. crimes against the peoples.

Now is the time for all to join in speaking out and saying NO! to all U.S. aggression. All U.S. Troops Home Now! With elections on everyone’s minds, now is also the time to discuss and work for an Anti-War, Pro-Planet Government.an Anti-War, Pro-Planet Government.an

1 • No War on Syria and Iraq

Syria Says U.S. and Its Allies Must Stop Financing and Training Terrorists and Work Under UN

In a September 23 television interview with Russia Today, Walid al- Moallem, Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister, and also its Foreign and Expatriates Minister of Syria, stressed if the U.S. and its allies are serious about combating terrorism, they must “immediately halt supporting, fi nancing and training the terrorist organizations” and “stop facilitating their fl ow into the Syrian territories through coordination with the Syrian state.” Furthermore, the U.S. must start to act under the framework of the United Nations without excluding anyone, including Russia, Iran and Syria.

“For decades, Syria called for the holding [of] an international conference on combating terrorism as it has realized the danger of terrorism. Since the beginning of the crisis, Syria said that terrorism will affect its supporters and funders and will spread outside the country to reach even Europe and the US,” al-Moallem said.

“We must distinguish between the international efforts in the framework of the Security Council’s Resolution No. 2170 to com-bat the terrorism of ISIS [Islamic state in Iraq and Syria], Jabahat al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations, and the hidden intentions of the U.S. and its allies as the members of this alliance are the same countries which have conspired against Syria

for more than three years,” al-Moallem added.He reiterated that the air strikes will not be fruitful without co-

ordinating with the active forces on the ground or without military action on the ground.

He criticized the U.S., saying that it is ironic to hear the U.S. say it will not coordinate with the Syrian government but will coordinate with the so- called moderate opposition as this opposition is killing Syrians just as ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra are doing.

al-Moallem added that there are suspicions about sincerity of the U.S. and its allies’ claim they wish to achieve a political solution in Syria as they are training armed groups prior to sending them into Syria to continue fi ghting the Syrian Arab army. This means that they want the crisis to continue and they want to wreck any political solution, he said.

“Any violation of Syria’s sovereignty is an aggression. This aggression is clearly defi ned by international law,” Al-Moallem said, noting that Syria is still extending a hand in the spirit of cooperation, to coordinate action to counter ISIS, al-Nusra Front and other terrorist organizations according to UN Security Council Resolution No. 2170.

21

NO WAR ON SYRIA AND IRAQ

Fighting ISIL Is a Smokescreen for U.S. Mobilization against Syria and Iran

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, September 17, 2014

The ISIL or IS threat is a smokescreen. The strength of the ISIL has deliberately been infl ated to get public support for the Pentagon and to justify the illegal bombing of Syria. It has also been used to justify the mobilization of what is looking more and more like a large-scale U.S.-led military buildup in the Middle East. The fi repower and military assets being committed go beyond what is needed for merely fighting the ISIL death squads.

While the U.S. has assured its citi-zens and the world that troops will not be sent on the ground, this is very un-likely. In the fi rst instance, it is unlikely because boots on the ground are needed to monitor and select targets. More-over, Washington sees the campaign against the ISIL fi ghters as something that will take years. This is doublespeak. What is being described is a permanent military deployment or, in the case of Iraq, redeployment. This force could eventually morph into a broader assault force threatening Syria, Iran, and Lebanon.

U.S.-Syrian and U.S.-Iranian Security Dialogue?Before the U.S.-led bombings in Syria started there were unverifi ed reports being circulated that Washington had started a dialogue with Damascus through Russian and Iraqi channels to discuss military coordination and the Pentagon bombing campaign in Syria. There was something very off though. Agents of confusion were at work in an attempt to legitimize the bombardment of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The claims of U.S.-Syrian cooperation via Russian and Iraq channels are part of a sinister series of misinformation and disinfor-mation. Before the claims about U.S. cooperation with Syria, similar claims were being made about U.S.-Iranian cooperation in Iraq.

Earlier, Washington and the U.S. media tried to give the impres-sion that an agreement on military cooperation was made between itself and Tehran to fi ght ISIL and to cooperate inside Iraq. This was widely refuted in the harshest of words by numerous members of the Iranian political establishment and high-ranking Iranian military commanders as disinformation.

After the Iranians clearly indicated that Washington’s claims were fi ction, the U.S. claimed that it would not be appropriate for Iran to join its anti-ISIL coalition. Iran rebutted. Washington was dishonestly misrepresenting the facts, because U.S. offi cials had asked Tehran to join the anti-ISIL coalition several times.

Before he was discharged from the hospital after a prostate

surgery, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest ranking official in Iran, told Iranian television on September 9, 2014, that the U.S. had requested that Tehran and Washington cooperate together inside Iraq on three different occasions. He explained that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq had relayed a message to the Iranian ambassador to Iraq to join the U.S., then, in his own words, “the same [John Kerry] — who had said in front of the camera and in front of the eyes of all the world that they do not want Iran to cooperate with them — requested [from] Dr. Zarif [Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs] that Iran cooperate with them on this issue, but Dr. Zarif turned this [request] down.” The third request was

made by U.S. Undersecretary Wendy Sherman to Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Khamenei additionally made it clear that he categorically ruled out any cooperation with Washington on the issue. “On this issue, we will not cooperate with America particularly because their hands are dirty,” he publicly confi rmed while explaining that Washington had ill intentions and nefarious designs in Iraq and Syria.

Like Russia, Iran has been supporting Syria and Iraq against ISIL. Also like Moscow, Tehran is committed to fi ghting it, but will not join Washington’s anti-ISIL coalition.

New Invasion(s) and Regime Change Project(s) in the Pipeline?

As was pointed out on June 20, 2014, in Washington’s eyes Nouri Al-Malaki’s federal government in Baghdad had to be removed for refusing to join the U.S. siege against the Syrians, being aligned to Iran, selling oil to the Chinese, and buying weapons from the Russian Federation. Iraq’s decision to be part of an Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline also undermined the objectives of the U.S. and its allies to control the fl ow of energy in the Middle East and to obstruct Eurasian integration.[1]

There were also two other unforgivable cardinal sins that Al-Malaki’s government in Baghdad committed in Washington’s eye. These offenses, however, should be put into geopolitical context fi rst.

Remember the post-September 11, 2001 (post-9/11) catchphrase of the Bush II Administration during the start of its serial wars? It went like this: “Anyone can go to Baghdad, but real men go to Tehran!” The point of this warmongering catchphrase is that Bagh-dad and Damascus have been viewed as pathways for the Pentagon

22

FIGHT FOR A PRO-PLANET, ANTI-WAR GOVERNMENTtowards Tehran.[2]

Like Syria, Al-Malaki government’s cardinal sins were tied to blocking the path-way to Tehran. Firstly, the Iraqi government evicted the Pentagon from Iraq at the end of 2011, which removed U.S. troops stationed directly on Iran’s western border. Secondly, the Iraqi federal government was working to expel anti-government Iranian militants from Iraq and to close Camp Ashraf, which could be used in a war or regime change operations against Iran.

Ashraf was a base for the military wing of the Iraqi-based Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK/MOK/MKO). The MEK is an anti-govern-ment Iranian organization that is bent on regime change in Tehran. It has even openly endorsed U.S.-led attacks on Iran and Syria.

Although the U.S. government itself considers the MEK a terror-ist organization, Washington began to deepen its ties with the MEK when it and its staunch British allies invaded Iraq. Disingenuously and ironically, the U.S. and Britain used Saddam Hussein’s support for the MEK to justify labeling Iraq as a state-sponsor of terrorism and to also justify the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Since then the U.S. has been nurturing the MEK.

Since 2003, the U.S. has been funding the MEK. Washington has been protecting the MEK, because it wants to keep them on a leash as either leverage against Tehran or to have the option of one day installing the MEK into power in Tehran as part of a regime change operation against Iran. The MEK has literally become incorporated into the Pentagon and CIA toolboxes against Tehran. Even when the U.S. transferred control of Camp Ashraf to Baghdad, the Pentagon kept forces inside the MEK camp.

Eventually the MEK forces would mostly be relocated in 2012 to the former U.S. base known as Camp Liberty. Camp Liberty is now called by an Arabic name, Camp Hurriya.

The Istanbul bureau chief of the Christian Science Monitor, Scott Peterson described how U.S. offi cials began to really put their weight behind the MEK during the start of the Arab Spring in 2011. This is tied to Washington’s regime change dreams. Peterson wrote that U.S. offi cials “rarely mention the MEK’s violent and anti-American past, and portray the group not as terrorists but as freedom fi ghters with ‘values just like us,’ as democrats-in-waiting ready to serve as a vanguard of regime change in Iran.”[3]

Washington Has Not Abandoned Dreams of Regime Change in Tehran

Washington has not abandoned its dreams for regime change in Tehran. Is it a coincidence that the U.S. and EU support for the MEK is increasing, especially when the ISIL threat in Iraq began to be noticed publicly?

Six hundred parliamentarians and politicians from mostly NATO countries were fl own in for a large MEK gathering in the Parisian northeastern suburb of Villepinte that called for regime change in Iran on June 27, 2014. Warmongers and morally bankrupt fi gures

like former U.S. senator Joseph Lieberman, Israeli mouthpiece and apologist Alan Der-showhitz, former Bush II offi cial and Fox News pundit John Bolton, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former French Minister and United Nations Interim Ad-ministration Mission in Kosovo (UNIMIK) chief Bernard Kouchner all met the MEK to promote regime change and war. According to the MEK, over 80,000 people attended the regime change rally. Supporters of the insur-gencies in Iraq and Syria were also present at the Villepinte gathering calling for regime change in Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

The irony is that the money for the event most probably came from the U.S. govern-ment itself. U.S. allies probably contributed too. This money has gone to the MEK’s

lobbying initiatives with the U.S. Congress and U.S. Department of State, which in effect is recycling the money. People like Rudy Giuliani — probably one of the most hated mayors in the history of New York City until he took advantage of the tragic events of 9/11 — are now effectively lobbyists for the MEK. “Many of these former high-ranking U.S. offi cials — who represent the full political spectrum — have been paid tens of thousands of dollars to speak in support of the MEK”, according to the Christian Sci-ence Monitor.[4]

Giuliani has been speaking at MEK events at least as far back as 2010. In 2011, he publicly pushed for regime change in Tehran and Damascus at a MEK gathering. “How about we follow an Arab Spring with a Persian Summer?” he rhetorically declared.[5] Giuliani’s next sentence revealed just how much of a scion of U.S. foreign policy the initiative to support the MEK truly is: “We need regime change in Iran, more than we do in Egypt or Libya, and just as we need it in Syria.”[6]

Joseph Lieberman’s friend and fellow war advocate Senator John McCain was unable to make the trip to the Parisian suburb in Seine-Saint-Denis, but addressed the regime change gathering via video. Congressman Edward Royce, the chair of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, also showed his support for regime change in Iran through a video message. So did Senator Carl Levin and Senator Robert Menendez.

Large delegations from the U.S., France, Spain, Canada, and Albania were present. Aside from the aforementioned individu-als, other notable American attendees to the June 27, 2014 event included the following:

1. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the lower chamber (House of Representatives) in the bicameral U.S. Congress;

2. John Dennis Hastert; another former speaker of the House of Representatives;

3. George William Casey Jr., who commanded the multinational military force that invaded and occupied Iraq;

4. Hugh Shelton, a computer software executive and former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff;

5. James Conway, the former chief of the U.S. Marine Corps

23

NO WAR ON SYRIA AND IRAQ6. Louis Freeh, the former director of the Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI);7. Lloyd Poe, the U.S. Representative who (1) sits on the U.S.

House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats and (2) chairs the U.S. House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation and Trade;

8. Daniel Davis, a U.S. Representative from Illinois;9. Loretta Sánchez, a U.S. Representative from California;10. Michael B. Mukasey, a former attorney general of the

U.S.;11. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont;12. William Richardson, the former secretary of the U.S. De-

partment of Energy;13. Robert Torricelli, a former legislator in the U.S. House of

Representatives and the U.S. Senate senator who is the legal rep-resentative of the MEK in Iraq;

14. Francis Townsend, former Homeland Security advisor to George W. Bush Jr.;

15. Linda Chavez, a former chief White House director;16. Robert Joseph, the former U.S. undersecretary that ran (1)

the Bureau of Arms Control, Verifi cation, and Compliance, (2) the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and (3) the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs;

17. Philip Crowley, the former assistant-secretary of state re-sponsible for public affairs;

18. David Phillips, the military police commander who restruc-tured the Iraqi police and was responsible for guarding Camp Ashraf and Saddam Hussein as a prisoner;

19. Marc Ginsberg, the senior vice-president of the public rela-tions fi rm APCO Worldwide and former U.S. ambassador and U.S. presidential advisor for Middle East policy.

Like the U.S. presence, the French presence included offi cials. Aside from Bernard Kouchner, some of the notable attendees from France were the following individuals:

1. Michèle Alliot-Marie, a French politician who among her cabinet portfolios was responsible for military and foreign affairs at different times;

2. Rama Yade, vice president of the conservative Radical Party of France;

3. Gilbert Mitterrand, president of the human rights foundation France Libertés, which has focused on ethnic groups such as Kurds, Chechens, and Tibetans;

4. Martin Vallton, the mayor of Villepinte.From Spain the notable attendees were the following:1. Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora, the Spanish chair of the Euro-

pean People’s Party (EPP) and its allies in the Council of Europe;2. Jordi Xucla, the Spanish chair of the Alliance of Liberals and

Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group in the Council of Europe;3. Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Spanish politician and one of the

fourteen vice-presidents of the European Union’s European Par-liament;

4. José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the former prime minister of Spain (who was also visibly accompanied by his wife Sonsoles Espinosa Díaz).

Other notable attendees from Euro-Atlantic countries

included:1. Pandli Majko, the

former prime minister of Albania;

2. Kim Campbell, the former prime min-ister of Canada

3. Geir Haarde, the former prime minister of Iceland;

4. Ingrid Betancourt, a former Colombian senator;

5. Alexander Carile, a member of the British House of Lords, the up-per house of the British Parliament;

6. Giulio Maria Terzi, the former foreign minister of Italy;7. Adrianus Melkert, a former Dutch cabinet minister, a former

World Bank executive, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s former special envoy to Iraq.

Not only regime change was talked about, but the cross-border crisis in Iraq and Syria was a major subject. Fox News gave the event special coverage. Just in July, the MEK’s leadership had condemned Iranian support to the Iraqi federal government in its fi ght against the ISIL, yet since the U.S. has begun to fi ght the ISIL it has begun to hold its tongue.

Before the regime change gathering, the MEK’s leader Maryam Rajavi — who the MEK has designated as the president of Iran since 1993 — even met with the puppet Syrian National Council’s leader Ahmed Jarba in Paris to discuss cooperation on May 23, 2014.

Regime Change in Damascus Through Mission Creep in Syria

The bombing campaign that the U.S. has started in Syria is illegal and a violation of the UN Charter. This is why the Pentagon took the step of claiming that the U.S.-led bombing campaign was prompted by the threat of an “imminent” attack that was being planned against the territory of the U.S. This allegation was made to give legal cover to the bombardment of Syrian territory through a warped argument under Article 51 of the UN Charter that allows a UN member to legally attack another country if an imminent attack by the said country is about to take place on the UN member.

Barack Obama and the U.S. government have done their best to confuse and blur reality through a series of different steps they have taken to claim legitimacy for violating international law by bombing Syria without the authorization of Damascus. Although U.S. Ambassador Samantha Powers informed Syria’s permanent representative to the UN that U.S.-led attacks would be launched on Al-Raqqa Governate, informing Bashar Al-Jaafari through a formal unilateral notifi cation does not amount to being given the legal consent of Syria.

The U.S.-led attacks on Syria do not have the backing of the UN

24

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FIGHT FOR A PRO-PLANET, ANTI-WAR GOVERNMENTSecurity Council either. The U.S. government, however, has tried to spin the September 19, 2014 meeting of the UN Security Council that John Kerry chaired as a sign that the UN Security Council and international community are backing its bombing campaign.

Nor is it a coincidence that just when the U.S. assembled its multinational coalition to fi ght the ISIL and its pseudo-caliphate, that John Kerry conveniently mentions that Syria has violated the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). While admitting that Syria did not use any material prohibited by the CWC, Kerry told U.S. legislators that Damascus had breached its commitments to the CWC on September 18, 2014. In other words, Washington intends to go after Syria and pursue regime change in Damascus. If this does not make it clear, then the fact that the U.S. will use Saudi Arabia to train more anti-government forces should.[7]

A U.S. brinkmanship strategy to justify a U.S.-led bombing campaign against Syria has been put into action with the intent of creating a pretext for expanding the illegal U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria that started on September 22, 2014.

What the U.S. envisions is a long-term bombing campaign, which also threatens Lebanon and Iran. According to Ali Khame-nei, the U.S. wants to bomb both Iraq and Syria using ISIL as a smokescreen on the basis of the model in Pakistan. More correctly, the situation should be called the AfPak (Af-Pak) model. The U.S. has used the spillover of instability from Afghanistan into Pakistan and the spread of the Taliban as a pretext for bombing Pakistan. Iraq and Syria have been merged as one confl ict zone, which Ibrahim Al-Marashi, using a neologism, has described as the rise of “Syraq.”

The Broader Objective: Disrupting Eurasian IntegrationWhile the U.S. has been pretending to fi ght the same terrorist and

death squads that it has created, the Chinese and their partners have been busy working to integrate Eurasia. America’s “Global War on Terror” has been paralleled with the rebuilding of the Silk Road. This is the real story and motivation for Washington’s insistence to fi ght and remobilize in the Middle East. It is also the reason why the U.S. has been pushing Ukraine to confront Russia and the EU to sanction the Russian Federation.

America wants to disrupt the reemerging Silk Road and its expanding trade network. While Kerry has been busy frighten-ing audiences about the ISIL and its atrocities, the Chinese have been busy sweeping the map by making deals across Asia and the Indian Ocean. This is part of the westward march of the Chinese dragon.

Parallel to Kerry’s travels, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Sri Lanka and went to the Maldives. Sri Lanka is already part of China’s Maritime Silk Road project. The Maldivians are newer entries; agreements have been reached to include the island-nation into the Maritime Silk Road network and infrastructure that China is busy constructing to expand maritime trade between East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Nor is it a coincidence that two Chinese destroyers docked at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf to conduct joint drills with Iranian warships in the Persian Gulf.

Parallel to east-west trade, a north-south trade and transport network is being developed. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was in Kazakhstan recently where he and his Kazakhstani counterpart,

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, confi rmed that trade was due to see manifold increases. The completion of the Kazakhstan-Turk-menistan-Iran railway, which will create a north-south transit route, is being awaited. Cooperation between Tehran and the Eurasian Union was also discussed by the two presidents. On the western side of the Caspian Sea, a parallel north-south corridor running from Russia to Iran through the Republic of Azerbaijan has been in the works.

The anti-Russia sanctions are beginning to cause uneasiness in the European Union. The real losers in the sanctions on Russia are the members of the European Union. Russia has demonstrated that it has options. Moscow has already launched the construction of its mega natural gas Yakutia — Khabarovsk — Vladivostok pipeline (also known as the Power of Siberia pipeline) to deliver gas to China while BRICS partner South Africa has signed a historic deal on nuclear energy with Rosatom.

Moscow’s infl uence on the world stage is very clear. Its infl u-ence has been on the rise in the Middle East and Latin America. Even in NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan, Russian infl uence is on the rise. The Russian government has recently compiled a list of over one hundred old Soviet construction projects that it would like to recuperate.

An alternative to U.S. and EU sanctions is beginning to emerge in Eurasia. Aside from the oil-for-goods deal that Tehran and Moscow signed, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak announced that Iran and Russia had made several new agreements worth seventy billion euro. Sanctions will soon merely isolate the U.S. and the EU. The Iranians have also announced that they are working with their Chinese and Russian partners to overcome the U.S. and EU sanctions regime.

America is being rolled back. It cannot pivot to the Asia-Pacifi c until matters are settled in the Middle East and Eastern Europe against the Russians, Iranians, Syrians, and their allies. That is why Washington is doing its best to disrupt, divide, redraw, bargain and co-opt. When it comes down to it, the U.S. is not concerned about fi ghting the ISIL, which has been serving Washington’s interests in the Middle East. America’s main concern is about preserving its crumbling empire and preventing Eurasian integration.

Notes1. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, “America pursuing regime change

in Iraq again”, RT, June 20, 2014.2. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, “The Syria Endgame: Strategic

Stage in the Pentagon’s Covert War on Iran”, Global Research, January 07, 2013.

3. Scott Peterson, “Iranian group’s big-money push to get off U.S. terrorist list”, Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 2011.

4. Ibid.5. Ibid.6. Ibid.7. Matt Spetalnick, Jeff Mason and Julia Edwards, “Saudi

Arabia agrees to host training of moderate Syria rebels”, Caren Bohan, Grant McCool, and Eric Walsh eds. Reuters, September 10, 2014.

(Strategic Culture, September 26, 2014)